Women (and men) can take the next step at Agnes Scott to enter the healthcare field.
College graduates can enroll in our post-baccalaureate pre-medical program for additional
courses needed to enter a medical career.

Psychology

Psychology

Would you like to learn how the brain works? Explore your own personality and those of the people around you? Read case studies on child autism? Observe a counseling session with a man with schizophrenia? Would you like to see how a rat courses through a maze for cheese or even conduct your own human study?

Consider a major or minor in psychology at Agnes Scott. You will learn about cognitive, clinical, behavioral, biological, developmental and social approaches that can be applied to human behavior.

Enjoy Small Classes in State-of-the-Art Facilities As a science major, you’ll have access to multi-million-dollar scientific instrumentation, dedicated faculty-student research laboratories, independent student project laboratories and long-term observation areas in the Mary Brown Bullock Science Center. All psychology labs are taught by full-time and part-time professors (not graduate or teaching assistants), and all students have the opportunity for hands-on research and experimentation. Our low student-to-faculty ratio offers you a comfortable environment to learn about human behavior and gain a greater understanding and appreciation for individual differences. In psychology classes, you can expect to engage in dynamic discussions, listen to intellectually-stimulating lectures, analyze your collected data, discuss journal articles and examine case studies.

Conduct Research and Publish Your ResultsPsychology faculty at Agnes Scott encourage undergraduate students to conduct supervised research, and even co-author journal articles. The psychology 400 research series allows you to work on a research project with a faculty member for a semester, creating the research design, executing the study and analyzing and interpreting the data. Recent research projects presented at our Spring Annual Research Conference (SpARC) have included “Aggression and Stress: Comparing Younger and Older Female Urban Commuters”; “Attachment Styles, Interpersonal Competence, and Diary-Based Social Interactions”; and “'The Chimp-munculus:’ Sex Differences in Cortical Representation of Vocal Production in Chimpanzees.” Students have published articles on their research in journals including the North American Journal of Psychology, the Journal of Homosexuality and the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research.

Learn Hands On Through InternshipsMany psychology students complete multiple internships during their time at Agnes Scott. Examples include working with industrial and organizational psychologists at Coca-Cola’s headquarters, Corporate Insights and Development, McKinsey and Company, Public Broadcasting, Georgia Power and the Ronald McDonald House. Other students work with clinical and counseling psychologists at Georgia Mental Health Institute, Emory Autism, Georgia Regional Hospital, the VA Hospital, Feminist Women’s Health Center, Zoo Atlanta, The Yerkes Primate Research Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Get Involved On CampusThe student-run Psychology Club, open to all who are interested in psychology, will provide you the opportunity to gain valuable leadership experience, as will Agnes Scott’s chapter of Psi Chi, a national honor society for psychology.

How will this degree help me when I graduate?A major in psychology increases your writing and communication skills, as well as provides you with the knowledge to perform research experiments. These new skills will prepare you for graduate studies and your future career. As you graduate, you can:

Pursue graduate studies in any area of psychology—counseling/clinical psychology, I/O (Industrial/Organizational) psychology, developmental psychology, neuropsychology, school psychology, social psychology and social work

Work for nonprofit organizations

Attend medical or law school

Work in speech or physical therapy

Work in government

Work in jobs related to social services and education

Recent Agnes Scott psychology graduates have enrolled in the following graduate programs: the industrial/organizational psychology program at Rice University; clinical psychology programs at the University of Houston, Auburn University and Arizona State University; the music therapy and the speech pathology programs at the University of Georgia.